Mike Woods column: Alvarez needs to raise the stakes

8:00 AM,
Dec. 7, 2012

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It was not uncommon back in the day to allude to Barry Alvarez as The Godfather.

His occupation being a football coach, he was called many other things as I watched him take the University of Wisconsin football program from chumps to champs starting in 1993 and going through the end of his tenure in 2005.

But what he always could do with his innate presence was command a room, and Thursday when he announced he was fulfilling a request from the Badgers captains to return to the sideline for the Rose Bowl, it was clear he hadn't lost a step. ...